Growing plants with an Aerogarden.

Happyflowerlady

Happyflowerlady

Vagabond Flowerchild
Location
Northern Alabama
My daughter gave me an Aerogarden about 2 years ago, and I liked it so well that I bought another smaller one as well. The Aerogarden is a hydroponic growing system, and it is easy to set one up and use it.
Mostly, I use it to start plants for the garden inside, and then once they have a good start, I transplant them into containers outside when the weather is warm enough.

I tried planting a regular garden, but the birds and squirrels just come along and eat the seeds, even when they have to dig them up to do it.
I even tried planting the cucumber and sunflower seeds underneath the irises so the squirrels wouldn’t find them; but the little pests came along , dug up all of the iris plants, ate the seeds, and threw the iris on the ground, and I had to replant all of my irises. Pests ! !

Anyway, now I use the Aerogardens for starting just about everything, and it works great. I have a special cover that is just for starting plants, and another one that is for actually growing the plants to full-size in the Aerogarden.
Does anyone else have an Aerogarden, and if so, what all do you grow in yours ?
 

I had one a few years years ago; I used it for fresh herbs in the kitchen. Makes a very pretty display when all the little plants are full and lush looking. My daughter always admired it so eventually I gave it to her.
 

For just a few plants, try a rotisserie chicken container

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That aerogarden sounds interesting. Like RadishRose, I've been using the rotisserie chicken containers for years. Once they get their true leaves I transplant the individual plants into paper cups with a few nail holes in the bottom for drainage. I weather them a bit in the spring and then put them in the garden. My daughter has grow lights in her basement. It looks like the Little Shop of Horrors down there. lol She did get some nice herbs and even grew some okra which produced enough to pickle. All this from the girl who would rather die than weed for me when she was home.lol The photo shows the okra. It is purple because it is under the light.okra (800x600).jpg
 
I have parsley growing in the small aerogarden, and several kinds of lettuce started in the larger one, but they are just barely starting to sprout now. When they get a good start, I am thinking that I will transplant them and then i can start more seeds sprouting.
Today, I was watching a video of a passive hydroponic system called “Kratky hydroponics”. Essentially, you are just growing the plants in a jar or other container with water and nutrients, so there is no pump or aeration system involved like the Aerogardens have.
I have started a cucumber seed in one of the aerogarden sprout baskets and put it in a gallon milk jug with water and plant food, and I am interested in seeing if it will sprout.
We have such hard clay here, and I have not had good luck growing my garden more years than not; but maybe if the hydroponic method works, then I can grow more plants that way, and also need less water.
 
After reading about the mason jar hydroponics, I decided to experiment with it and see how it does. When I plant anything outside, either the birds or the squirrels eat the seeds, and the ground is such a hard-packed Clay and full of roots that it is hard to dig anywhere to even plant anything.
So, I have some lettuce started in the aerogarden, and today i transplanted one start into a milk just filled with water and some plant nutrients.
I have started some cucumber seeds in the aerogarden in the space where i took the lettuce out of, and if they sprout, then I will put them into another milk jug. We are starting to get warmer weather; so on nice days, I can have the jugs outside, and inside in bad weather.
 
Just an update on the mason jar hydroponics. It works fine, and I also used cottage cheese containers as well as gallon milk/water jugs to grow plants in.
They do grow, and you do not have to use a lot of water; but I didn’t think that they were doing well in the containers because of the smaller openings.
I ended up cutting out the tops of the milk jugs and making them into planters and then hanging them onto the chain link fence with zip ties.
We have a lot of trees in the yard, and very little sunshine, but the fence that is on the east side does catch the morning sun. It is actually the back of the neighbor’s lot, but he never goes out there, and is fine with me growing plants on his fence.

I have 4 of the aerogardens now, two little ones that I found on ebay, and another older large one that was advertised on craigslist.
They are perfect for starting plants inside and then transplanting them outside into containers.
 
One of my aerogardens was an old one that I bought used from Craigslist, and the water pump had finally given up on it; so I looked on Amazon and found one of the aerogarden look-alikes (much cheaper) and ordered one of those . It is supposed to be here today; and I am going to start some lettuce in it. Once it is going good, I may transplant it into one of the kratky jars or outside in the garden and let it grow, so I can start something else in the aerogarden.
 
I have an online journal which I share with my family, called Day One Journal. My oldest son (the family Guru) set it up so that we could all share family stories that we remember with each other, and it works perfect for that. It has a share feature that allows us to each start a journal and then share with everyone.

Anyway, I decided to start another journal there, just for my gardening and Kombucha fermenting, and it works perfectly for that. It has more room for me to write information and update things as plants grow and I transplant them into containers. I was doing this on my calendar on the ipad, but using the journal makes keeping track much easier, and I can add pictures when I want to do that.

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